On the Move!

Things are moving along!  It seems like the final steps leading up to Travel Approval are the most stressful and move the fastest.  There is more paperwork to fill out and time frames between steps are shorter and more precisely predicted (well, kind of!).  Things have moved faster than we ever anticipated to bring Isaiah home.  We honestly didn't expect to be traveling until November or December of this year.  Traveling this fall was not on our radar at all.  So here is where we stand!

August 19 our Chinese visas arrived.  China wants to know when you are arriving and when you are leaving their country and you must have permission to enter.  These visas are our ticket in!

August 25 was marked by the receipt of our Article 5 letter.  This letter deals with Isaiah's visa to enter the United States.  We will receive his visa from the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China before we travel home.  This piece of paper is also what China needs to issue travel approval to adopting families.

August 27 . . . . WE HAVE TRAVEL APPROVAL!   WHAT??!!  Yes, we have travel approval 2 DAYS after our Article 5.  It is supposed to take two to four WEEKS! While we could have chosen to travel in the September 11th travel group, the last travel group to leave in the month of September (due to the Mid-Autumn festival), we have decided to wait until October.  While it was difficult choice to wait a few more weeks, several things factored into this decision and we felt it was best for our family.  God has Isaiah in His mighty hands.

August 28 was ticket day!  Even though our travel dates are weeks away, we wanted to purchase our tickets as far in advance as possible with the hope that prices would be a bit less.  We are now the proud owners of sets of tickets for two adults and two children!

Now we will start pulling things together so when it comes time to pack we will be ready.  And yes, there is already a small stack growing in the corner of our bedroom. So, I suppose I should have written we will CONTINUE pulling things together. :)

Never did I imagine I would travel to China once, let alone twice.  (Randy, on the other hand has always had it on his "bucket list.")  And to be doing so to grow our family?  God is amazing!

Thank you for your continued prayers for our family!

A Crazy Friday!

Friday, August 7 goes in the books as "Crazy Friday!"  Three major things happened all in one day: our NVC letter arrived via email, our I800 approval arrived via mail, and we received an update about Isaiah.  I checked my email on Friday morning and it was gift after gift! 

First, I opened my email and saw one from NVC (National Visa Center).  This came as a SHOCK because the NVC letter isn't supposed to be received until 2 to 3 weeks AFTER receipt of our I800 approval.  We hadn't received our I800 approval yet!  This letter provided us with a case number that will be sent to the US Embassy in Guangzhou with our I800 approval so a visa can be issued for Isaiah to enter the US.  (This will be approved and then issued when we are in China).

On Thursday I had emailed Immigration asking about the status of our I800 approval.  The second important email I found Friday morning was a response saying that our I800 had been approved 7/31 and should arrive in the mail in the next few days (it arrived later that day). This approval from US Immigration classifies Isaiah as a relative and allows him entry into the United States, becoming a US citizen as soon as he touches US soil.  The HUGE thing about this is that our NVC letter and I800 arrived on the SAME DAY so we don't have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for the next step!

Lastly, we had paid a company that specializes in sending care packages to children being adopted to obtain the answers to 10 questions (written by us) and updated photographs of Isaiah.  The answers to our questions (about 40 when all said and done - the art of a question within a question), updated photographs AND 6 short videos were also waiting in my email inbox.  Like I said, a CRAZY Friday!!

We are two steps closer to bringing our little boy home!

"Numbers for Isaiah" Updates

8/27/2015 Update:
Our "Numbers for Isaiah" fundraiser is closing out and I am humbled and thrilled to announce that when all of the numbers that have been chosen are "filled" the giving total will be $3,913.  Thank you seems so insufficient but it is the best I can do at the moment.  From the bottom of our hearts . . . THANK YOU!!!!

8/9/2015 Update:

7/30/2015 Update:
As long as people continue choosing numbers, I will continue posting updates!  We are excited to see all of the participation and hope to have a few more numbers chosen before Isaiah comes home.  Thank you for your donations!

7/25/2015 Update:
52 numbers chosen (a few duplicates here and there which is fine), 98 left and $2,263 raised. The generosity of our friends and family is amazing! We will keep updating the number wall as long as numbers are chosen! heart emoticon

New numbers taken: 55 and 61

Day 5:
New numbers taken as of 7/21 (in addition to those in the photo): 68, 110, 142

Day 4:
New numbers taken as of 7/20 (in addition to those in the photo): 2, 5, 23, 24, 34, 148, 149

Day 3:
New numbers taken as of 7/19 (in addition to those in the photo): 73, 78, 150

Day 2: 
New numbers taken as of 7/18 (in addition to those in the photo): 1, 4, 6. 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 19, 22, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32, 40, 84

Numbers for Isaiah

Dear Friends and Family,

This amazing adoption journey began December 2014 (much to our surprise) and the outpouring of love and support since then has been staggering.  This process would not be possible without our amazing friends and family!  We know God has been faithful to multiply our finances through the monies we have received via donations and fundraising, but there is still a large gap between what has been saved/raised (approximately $10,000) and the cost of an international adoption (roughly $40,000).  That said, we are hosting one more fundraiser to help us cover our international program fee ($7,300 cash paid in China), and as much of our travel and in-country costs as possible (roughly $12,000).  Please consider choosing a number (or numbers!) for Isaiah.

“Numbers for Isaiah”

Please choose a number (or numbers) ranging from 1 to 150, donate that amount to our adoption fund* (cash or check), and help us raise approximately $11,000 to bring Isaiah home!  Yes, that is an accurate number. (We were stunned when we did the math!)  EVERY dollar really DOES count.  Our goal is to have each number used once.  If the number you would like has already been taken please choose a number that is one more or one less. You may also combine numbers to create a desired total.  If you choose to participate, please mail your donation to us within the next two weeks.

We will be posting updated pictures of the “number wall” on our Facebook pages and blog so you can track our progress and see which numbers are still available.  After choosing a number, please let Robyn know so we can keep our “number wall” up to date.  If you know anyone who might be interested in participating in “Numbers for Isaiah” and joining our adoption journey, please spread the word or share our Facebook posts and/or blog address.  Thank you for helping us bring Isaiah home!

With Love and Gratitude,

Randy, Robyn, Ezekiel (aka “The Big Brother”) and Isaiah

It's Official!

We are OFFICIALLY parents of two little boys!  

Our dossier was sent to China on May 29, 2015 and logged in to China's database on June 4, 2015.  That is when our wait for official approval began.  We had already received and accepted Isaiah's referral but in the eyes of the Chinese government he was still a ward of Chinese Children's Services.  When we adopted Zeke our wait time for official approval (RA - referral acceptance) was just over 3 months so that was our anticipated timeframe.  Apparently China is processing documents faster than they were in 2013.  Our wait for RA was only 42 days!  We should travel sometime between the end of September and the middle of October rather than mid-winter like we thought.

Since we received our RA today we were able to officially share photos of Isaiah!  Here are the two most current photographs we have received:

I had our next set of documents ready to send to USCIS (Immigration) so as soon as our RA document was emailed from our agency we filled it out, added it to the stack of already prepared paperwork and headed to send it out via FedEx.  Now we wait about a month for USCIS approval to bring Isaiah into the country.  We are getting so close!

Zeke is excited to be a big brother (although he doesn't really understand what that means) and is looking forward to riding on the "big airplane to get Isaiah from China."

Who Knew x2!

Well friends, you continue to amaze and bless our soon-to-be family of four!  Over the past month and a half we have done four different fundraisers using lumpia (Filipino eggrolls).  After our cheesecake auctions my sister-in-law Ann asked if we would want to do the same with lumpia.  I wasn't sure what the interest level would be but we said yes and she made us 75 beef lumpia.  Randy took them to work and priced them to sell at $1 a piece.  When I posted pictures telling about this latest fundraiser I also asked if there would be any interest in a lumpia Facebook auction.  I had a few takers!

 
My amazing co-worker Mari, who also makes lumpia, noticed our fundraising efforts and offered to match Ann's donation of uncooked lumpia for our Facebook auction.  We now had 150 lumpia instead of 75 to use for fundraising efforts.  Four bags were put up for auction on Facebook and the bidding war started!  The last two bags were used for a raffle at my workplace where tickets were sold for $1 a piece.  The result of these three lumpia fundraisers was $685.50 for our adoption fund!

BUT, it gets BETTER!  Once the raffle was over Mari offered to take special orders for lumpia from co-workers who were interested and chose to donate the proceeds to our adoption fund.  We were totally and completely humbled by her generosity.  My co-workers took advantage of her offer and another $485 was donated.  WHOA!!

At this point lumpia (and the amazing ladies who have donated their time, energy, and know-how) has helped us raise $1,170 to help bring little Isaiah Ross home!  And the timing couldn't have been more perfect.  We are hoping to send our dossier to China at the end of May and with that exciting step comes a $6,250 price tag.  

We are thankful beyond words for the number of people who have joined our adoption journey through our fundraising efforts!  Someday little Isaiah will know (and understand) how many people helped bring him home.

With love and thanks!
R, R, Z, & I

Who Knew?

The generosity of others is an amazing thing.

In late March I had a little fundraising idea (fully God inspired in my opinion).  Why not have a cheesecake auction on Facebook?  I told Randy I would see if there was any interest and then go from there.  Well, if you have followed my Facebook page at all, the interest was there and my kitchen turned into a cheesecake factory!  My thought  was that one or two cheesecake auctions would bring in around $100 which could be used for paperwork processing fees at the state level.  Shows you what I know!

These two pictures posted on Facebook . . . . 

 

the generosity of friends (that still brings me to tears), and the sale of 5 cheesecakes helped us raise $560!  This is HUGE!!!  Let me break it down for you.  I just sent half of our paperwork to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.  The cost was $480.  After we receive our USCIS approval (fingerprinted yesterday - hopefully to have the paperwork in hand in a few weeks) the final stack gets sent to the state which will cost $75.  I will give you a moment to do the math . . . . . That totals $555.  God is SOOOOOOO amazing and works through the people around us more than we/you will ever know!

Feeling thankful!

Robyn